


I Think You're Kinda Cute

by Nithanghell



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daydreaming, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Teen Crush, Tutoring, so much pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 19:00:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19362553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nithanghell/pseuds/Nithanghell
Summary: That awkward moment when you spend 90% of your time in class pining after this guy only to become his tutor.The only solution? Pine harder!





	I Think You're Kinda Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is just a quick fic of Takumi pining after Leo. I'm so tired, it's 2am forgive me

Takumi was talented at most things. There were many things he could and couldn’t do. He knew his older siblings out shadowed him in that respect. Kendo and Volleyball being the few things he begrudgingly realised was not his strong point. It had only taken a year placed in the same class with Ryoma to see who really was progressing quicker. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d tried creating another window in his bedroom wall with his fist. At the time he had resented what fate had given him. It had hurt. 

“On Page 43, line 4 can anyone tell me what symbolism Shakespeare is trying to emulate?” his softly spoken teacher was barely heard in the background. A chorus of rustling pages followed in suit as the blurs of shapes around him moved at almost inhuman speeds. Not that he cared much for it. Takumi preferred the delicate and rough strokes he began to make with his pen. He could lose himself in the calm lakes of black and white.

He had stopped when Sakura of all people had demanded to see his hands. She was oh so delicate with her short red locks and pink flushed face but at times he had forgotten that Sakura despite it all had inherited the same stubbornness as him. It was a distant memory that still brought a smile to his face, though he knew not why.  
Takumi peered at the shapes he had drawn. Yes, he was quite talented as he thought to himself, eyes shifting between the page and him. His whose feathered locks resembled threads of gold interwoven in sunlight. He called it luck that the boy with gilded lashes had arrived late the first day. Blanketed in melting snow that made his skin glow alight with rosy flame. A similar fire was felt across his face before he quickly brushed it away. 

No one had taken the window seat for obvious reasons, one of those being that the weather had only two options. Gentle heat or perpetual never-ending winter that would send penguins reeling back to their arctic frost and winds. That never did seem to bother the other student, whose meticulously groomed hair never seemed a hair out of place. Embarrassingly enough that was just the opposite for Takumi. Hair resembling the ravaging ocean storms with the water to cast away any doubts. It was one of the main reasons during the stormy season he sprints to class and not because he wanted to look tidy and well-kept for the blonde across the room.  
The end of class sent every student running for freedom as if the disinterest in dead writers wasn’t obvious enough. Swiftly he packed all his belongings up within his tattered patched up denim bag, only to be told to stay behind by the teacher.

Being called up after class usually didn’t worry him. With a daily study routine of 5 hours and a non-existent social life, he’d like to think he was on top of his grades. There had been no letters home to his mother to his knowledge and there was no way the aloof teacher could have noticed the way his gaze loved to drift could they? It’s not like it was obvious and his grades as far as he was aware didn’t reflect that…hopefully. He prayed that he was right.  
The awareness made him uncomfortably clench and unclench his fists every second growing warmer as the door sounded shut with the last student safety through. The hairs on his neck began rising higher as he noticed the blonde walking towards the front desk, his gaze once more wondered to the other’s dark eyes almost hidden by his thick lashes. He willed his concrete legs to move. 

‘What was he doing there? Shouldn’t he have left already?’ On the contrary, they seemed to have the same destination; the teacher’s desk. Said teacher peered curiously at him which prompted to Takumi to get a move on. No need to make it far more awkward than it already was.  
He stared at his scuffled shoes as he made his way forward. For once he was thankful his shoelaces had come loose. His excuse about not wanting to trip would have sounded far more believable. 

“Takumi!” His teacher brightly smiled at him, a gesture probably meant to come off as friendly if he didn’t look so ominous. That was the smile he wore when he knew something the other didn’t. Usually, he’d wear it after asking a particularly tricky question.  
“You’re not in trouble,” he began slowly as if speaking to a frightened animal. Realising how it must have looked to an outsider, he lifted his head to meet his gaze. “I’m sure you’ve met Leo here?” 

Being so close to him, he could smell the smoky pine scent that had brushed against him as Leo turned with his hand outstretched. The blonde flashed him a smile that almost made Takumi fall to his knees. A rush of heat diffused across his cheeks. Biting his lip he was too afraid to meet the other’s eye. The other whose face was plastered across the black and white lines of his notebook. He’d love to sketch his smile, never being close enough to him in class made drawing beautiful details like that quite difficult and pulling out a telescope would not have been very subtle. 

 

Realising all eyes were on him, his hand jolted to shake Leo’s. Delicately he shook the blonde’s hand, careful as if he’d slip away at any moment.  
He was thankful when the teacher broke the silence and began handing back their class books. “Leo here, I believe would benefit from some tutoring, don’t worry your analysis is perfect” he directed this at Leo who simply nodded. “Unfortunately, you are missing some of the culture and symbolism references and so this is where you come in Takumi”.  
In response Takumi could only nod and smile, words flying over his head. 

Careful planning was the very essence of his school life. Loath to admit it, it had interwoven into his school life whether he agreed or not.  
It wasn’t as if society had made it difficult to keep track of these things either. The simple sky blue watch bound around his wrist told him everything he needed to do and when. Nothing would be out of place so long as he followed his own carefully planned schedule. Embarrassingly enough he designated a time and a place to figure out the time and place for most everything. From exercise breaks to the length of revision sessions.  
He had found over the years, swamped in books and caked with pencil shavings, food was a simple pleasure in life that he’d spend as much time as affordable to be with. Especially his mother’s cooking which he shamefully found himself daydreaming of during lessons when he most definitely should be taking those crucial notes, not that he cared too much about them. Absently his finger grazed over and over the smooth shine of the pencil. Notes were always far too easily lost and it’s not as if he lacked the time to make up for it.  
Click, click, and click.  
Staring at the clock he wondered how slowly a person could walk. It had been precisely 27 seconds since he’d last checked the time. Perhaps he could make a game out of counting the seconds that had passed by. Drawing circles on the oaken surface of the desk he opted to wait a little longer. Surely he hadn’t arrived early or something? He’d made sure of that, there was never a second out of line until now. Until he had involved a lovely someone else.

 

“Tai…kuume?” He was hesitant and delicate Takumi thought unconsciously staring at his partner’s lips. It took a while for Leo to learn the proper pronunciation of his name. Not that Takumi had actually minded as he ran his hand through his ponytail again. What would Leo’s hands feel like? Unconsciously he shook his head, momentarily forgetting the warm autumn’s eyes on him.  
“Ta…kuumi?” A shiver slithered down his spine. Soft, silky and husky?! ‘That’s not fair”!  
At least he was alone with him…  
Focus. He resisted the urge to play with the red ribbon tied around the bird's nest like hair he had. He shook his head once more insisting that the tone and pitch of his name had been spoken wrong. Hoping to cover up for those seconds of silence, knowing Leo, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had noticed.  
“You’re close” he smiled shyly, making a point to stare at anything else in the corridor. “I think your main problem is extending the syllables of the first portion of my name”. He rummaged for something in his bag. ‘Look natural Takumi, just pretend you were thinking of checking something in your bag’.  
Accepting his criticism his name soon turned into a quiet mantra, the other not realising Takumi could hear every single little gasp. At first his pale lips found no words when he had heard his own name muttered a thousand different ways beneath Leo’s breath.  
Initially, he had thought the noises were just his usual musings. He had sometimes noticed in class that Leo’s lips would move silently, reciting something on the pages in the textbook but other times it had been down the corridor. Even when he was alone, which was more often than not.  
His first theory was that this was just how smart people were from his homeland. Observant, quiet and striking. Somewhat like that foreign film he saw once with his older brother. Wrapped in thick long woolly coats, high cheekbones and an astute voice. Maybe that daydream of detective Leo was a bit too far off.  
Not that he was disappointed, he could listen to him forever. Alas, the corridor disagreed with him, leading to a crossroads quicker than Takumi agreeing to tutor his fellow student beside him.  
“I apologise, it seems I’m still not quite used to,” Takumi noticed he seemed to struggle with his wording for a brief second. Though his tongue floundered at words his composure was still cool, certain and calm. “I’m still getting used to the names and pronunciations”. There was the brief eyebrow twitch that only seemed to serve as a reminder that Takumi really should be paying more attention to that lovely voice of his and not those beautiful elegant curves.  
“Oh, no don’t worry about that,” he waved his hands out in front of him, hopefully he didn’t look like a bird learning to fly. Looking anywhere but Leo’s face as he composed himself from the thought he continued “That’s what I’m here to help you with”. His face felt so warm and it had nothing to do with the blaze of sun seeping through the window. “Plus I-I-I can help with anything else that you’re struggling with, not just pronunciations and understanding the s-symbolism of stuff”.  
Despite the stutter that he’d later kick himself for, he was melting. His knees would have buckled right there had he not managed to collide his back with the wall.  
His smile was the radiant dawn. Takumi took a shallow breath, there was a flush sprinkled across his crush’s face. The rose pink of his cheeks revealed golden stars scattered across his skin like a sunset spilt across the sky. It certainly felt like being on cloud nine because he couldn’t breathe.  
“Thank you…Taku,” His sky turned rosier, how beautiful. Carefully Leo clasped his hands behind his back, failing to stay composed. The way he seemed so flustered over his name made Takumi’s heart flutter. “I appreciate your help. Unfortunately, I have Mathematics next period,” his heart sank a little “but I am staying behind after school so we could meet up in the library if you’d like?” and like that his heart quivered. Alone time with Leo. He had just realised the predicament he was in.  
Perhaps they’d find a small alcove near the back, hidden in the groves of books. No librarians interrupting them with their nasally voices and loud heels. Just the two of them surrounded by ancient history.  
He’d almost forgotten to respond. 

 

His stomach brought him back to modern history, a volcano of noise protesting against the food free wasteland.  
He had chosen the far end of the library to study in with his study partner which meant that they were somewhat hidden within the secret orchard of books. The silver-haired boy smiled to himself. It reminded him of the fairy tales he and his little sister used to make up late at night. Especially when they should have been sleeping, even though the summer night’s sky refused to fade into its deep ocean blue. The desk light danced like fireflies as the shadows seemed somewhat warmer now. Takumi shook his head a little, this was supposed to be study time.  
He really shouldn’t have dreamt off so much but at least it lessened the thunder within him.  
Though he inexplicitly perked up a little, as he noticed the golden weaves rippling between the labyrinths of books.  
If this were any normal person he wouldn’t have hesitated on berating said person on being so late. Thankfully they weren’t just any normal person. He felt his hand twitch as an argument had begun within his mind.  
‘Should I wave and signal his attention’? Jumping was out of the question and yelling his name would have garnered too much-unwanted attention that would make it worse on the both of them. Plus he added on to himself, ‘getting kicked out of the library would definitely start tutoring on a sour note’. Perhaps something more casual and composed was better instead of flailing his arms like a helpless maiden.  
His options were limited as he foolishly hadn’t bothered to take out his notebook, leaving a blank table almost blanker than his mind.


End file.
